Artist: Difference between revisions

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(Reducing the Begin and End area info in the Artist doc to just a description of the field, and moving all style guidance to the Style/Artist doc. See forum thread: https://community.metabrainz.org/t/regarding-area-and-year-of-formation-disbandment-birth-death-for-fictitious-artists/655856/)
 
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An artist is generally a musician (or musician persona), group of musicians, or other music professional (like a producer or engineer).
{{DocumentationHeader|Artist|Terminology}}
Occasionally, it can also be a non-musical person (like a photographer, an illustrator, or a poet whose writings are set to music), or even a [[Fictitious_Artist|fictional character]]. For some other special cases, see [[Style/Unknown and untitled/Special purpose artist|special purpose artists]].
An artist is generally a musician, group of musicians, a collaboration of multiple musicians or other music professional contributing to the works described in the [[MusicBrainz Database]]. In other words, artists are ''usually'' people who sing or play instruments.

Special cases include [[Fictitious Artist|fictitious artists]], [[Style/Unknown and untitled/Special purpose artist|special purpose artists]] and miscellaneous people such as graphic designers or illustrators that are added to the database an an "artist" in order to credit them for their work.


== Examples ==
== Examples ==
* [[artist:cc197bad-dc9c-440d-a5b5-d52ba2e14234|Coldplay]]
* [[artist:cc197bad-dc9c-440d-a5b5-d52ba2e14234|Coldplay]]
* [[artist:f90e8b26-9e52-4669-a5c9-e28529c47894|Snoop Dogg]]
* [[artist:53b106e7-0cc6-42cc-ac95-ed8d30a3a98e|John Williams]] (soundtrack composer & conductor)
* [[artist:53b106e7-0cc6-42cc-ac95-ed8d30a3a98e|John Williams]] (soundtrack composer & conductor)
* [[artist:8b8a38a9-a290-4560-84f6-3d4466e8d791|John Williams]] (classical guitar player)
* [[artist:8b8a38a9-a290-4560-84f6-3d4466e8d791|John Williams]] (classical guitar player)
* [[artist:83d91898-7763-47d7-b03b-b92132375c47|Pink Floyd]]
* [[artist:83d91898-7763-47d7-b03b-b92132375c47|Pink Floyd]]
* [[artist:0b51c328-1f2b-464c-9e2c-0c2a8cce20ae|Seattle Symphony]]
* [[artist:593abf14-4292-4d62-b365-79c7674cd1a5|Randy Jackson]] (brother of Michael and Janet.)
* [[artist:86437518-fca1-4117-b698-b371b72d76a5|Bill Porter]]
* [[artist:39828c81-cc39-4e8a-8e00-f0874c657d47|Randy Jackson]] (former bassist with Journey and American Idol Judge)


== Style guidelines ==
== Style guidelines ==
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=== Name ===
=== Name ===
The [[Artist/Name|artist name]] is the official name of an artist, be it a person or a band. In most cases it's the name as found on the liner.
The official name of an artist, be it a person or a band.


=== Sort name ===
For people, the name can either be a legal name or a performance name. When both are in the database, they can be linked together using the [[rt:dd9886f2-1dfe-4270-97db-283f6839a666|performance name relationship]].
The sort name is a variant of the artist name which would be used when sorting artists by name, such as in record shops or libraries. Among other things, sort names help to ensure that all the artists that start with "The" don't end up up under "T". [[Style/Artist/Sort_Name|The guidelines for sort names]] are the best place to check for more specific usage info.


=== Type ===
;Legal name
The type is used to state whether an artist is a person, a group, or something else.
:A legal name is the name of a person as used in official situations such as government dealings. This is usually the name which would be found on a birth certificate, although legal names can be changed, e.g. through marriage or by deed poll. Bands do not have legal names.


:;Person
;Performance name
::This indicates an individual person.
:A performance name is an alias used by a person for marketing or other reasons. A person may use several performance names and may also release material under their legal name.


:;Group
=== Sort name ===
::This indicates a group of people that may or may not have a distinctive name.
The sort name is a variant of the artist name which would be used when sorting artists by name, such as in record shops or libraries. Among other things, sort names help to ensure that all the artists that start with "The" don't end up up under "T".


:;Orchestra
=== Type ===
::This indicates an orchestra (a large instrumental ensemble).
The type is used to explicitly state whether an artist is a person or group.

:;Choir
::This indicates a choir/chorus (a large vocal ensemble).

:;Character
::This indicates an individual fictional character.

:;Other
::Anything which does not fit into the above categories.

Note that not every ensemble related to classical music is an orchestra or choir. The [[Artist:598063d1-1fc6-496a-8e91-2c21c38d8c92|Borodin Quartet]] and [[Artist:c8db3d2b-19d8-4dc7-b2cb-deea37aa274a|The Hilliard Ensemble]], for example, are simply groups.


=== Gender ===
=== Gender ===
The gender is used to explicitly state whether a person identifies as male, female or neither. Groups do not have genders.
The gender is used to explicitly state whether a person or character identifies as male, female or neither. Groups do not have genders.


=== Country ===
=== Area ===
The artist country, as the name suggests, stores the country with which an artist is primarily identified with. It does not necessarily have to be the birth country.
The artist area, as the name suggests, indicates the area with which an artist is primarily identified with. It is often, but not always, its birth/formation country.


=== Begin and end dates ===
=== Begin and end dates ===
The begin and end dates indicate when an artist started and finished its existence. Its exact meaning depends on the type of artist:
See the [[Begin and End Dates|page about dates]] for more information.

:;For a person:
::Begin date represents date of birth, and end date represents date of death.

:;For a group (or orchestra/choir):
::Begin date represents the date the group ''first'' formed, and the end date represents the date when the group ''last'' dissolved.

:;For a character:
::Begin date represents the date (in real life) when the character concept was created. The end date should not be set. These fields do not hold fictional birth and death dates.

:;For others:
::These fields are currently undefined for artists of the type Other.


=== IPI code ===
=== IPI code ===
An IPI (interested party information) code is an identifying number assigned by the CISAC database for musical rights management. See [[IPI]] for more information, including how to find these codes.
An IPI (interested party information) code is an identifying number assigned by the CISAC database for musical rights management. See [[IPI]] for more information, including how to find these codes.

=== ISNI code ===
The International Standard Name Identifier for the artist. See [[ISNI]] for more information.


=== Alias ===
=== Alias ===
Aliases are alternate names for an artist, which currently have two main functions: localised names and search hints. Localised names are used to store the official names used in different languages and countries. These use the locale field to identify which language or country the name is for. Search hints are used to help both users and the server when searching and can be a number of things including alternate names, nicknames or even misspellings. For more information and examples, see the [[Style/Artist/Aliases|guidelines for aliases]].
Aliases are used to store alternate names or misspellings. For more information and examples, see the [[Aliases|page about aliases]].


=== MBID ===
=== MBID ===
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* [[How To Merge Artists|How to merge artists]]
* [[How To Merge Artists|How to merge artists]]


{{ArtistFooter}}
[[Category:To Be Reviewed]] [[Category:Terminology]] [[Category:Artist]] [[Category:WikiDocs Page]]
[[Category:To Be Reviewed]] [[Category:Terminology]] [[Category:Artist]] [[Category:WikiDocs Page]]

Latest revision as of 23:13, 18 September 2023

An artist is generally a musician (or musician persona), group of musicians, or other music professional (like a producer or engineer). Occasionally, it can also be a non-musical person (like a photographer, an illustrator, or a poet whose writings are set to music), or even a fictional character. For some other special cases, see special purpose artists.

Examples

Style guidelines

Please see the guidelines for artists.

Artist properties

Name

The official name of an artist, be it a person or a band.

Sort name

The sort name is a variant of the artist name which would be used when sorting artists by name, such as in record shops or libraries. Among other things, sort names help to ensure that all the artists that start with "The" don't end up up under "T". The guidelines for sort names are the best place to check for more specific usage info.

Type

The type is used to state whether an artist is a person, a group, or something else.

Person
This indicates an individual person.
Group
This indicates a group of people that may or may not have a distinctive name.
Orchestra
This indicates an orchestra (a large instrumental ensemble).
Choir
This indicates a choir/chorus (a large vocal ensemble).
Character
This indicates an individual fictional character.
Other
Anything which does not fit into the above categories.

Note that not every ensemble related to classical music is an orchestra or choir. The Borodin Quartet and The Hilliard Ensemble, for example, are simply groups.

Gender

The gender is used to explicitly state whether a person or character identifies as male, female or neither. Groups do not have genders.

Area

The artist area, as the name suggests, indicates the area with which an artist is primarily identified with. It is often, but not always, its birth/formation country.

Begin and end dates

The begin and end dates indicate when an artist started and finished its existence. Its exact meaning depends on the type of artist:

For a person
Begin date represents date of birth, and end date represents date of death.
For a group (or orchestra/choir)
Begin date represents the date the group first formed, and the end date represents the date when the group last dissolved.
For a character
Begin date represents the date (in real life) when the character concept was created. The end date should not be set. These fields do not hold fictional birth and death dates.
For others
These fields are currently undefined for artists of the type Other.

IPI code

An IPI (interested party information) code is an identifying number assigned by the CISAC database for musical rights management. See IPI for more information, including how to find these codes.

ISNI code

The International Standard Name Identifier for the artist. See ISNI for more information.

Alias

Aliases are used to store alternate names or misspellings. For more information and examples, see the page about aliases.

MBID

See the page about MBIDs for more information.

Disambiguation comment

See the page about comments for more information.

Annotation

See the page about annotations for more information.

Additional information